Could easily have paid twice as much elsewhere, but this drum has the sound I was looking for and the shipping was so well-packed and delivered quickly. Enjoying my new drum very much, and very little tuning required on receipt.

This Toca Freestyle II Rope Tune Djembe is nicely made, light weight, well-constructed, and sounds great if tuned properly. The finish is clean looking and the construction of this djembe is great. It has the look of a traditional African drum but uses all of the modern materials of today. The head is synthetic, which is great if you drum in all type of different weather conditions and locations. You don't have to worry about the rain, humidity, or the beach. Because all the materials are manmade, they stand up to a lot of different conditions. If they get wet, but try not to get them wet, you can wipe them down and they will still sound good. And don't ever leave any drum out in direct sun, for extended periods of time. I like the rope tuning better than metal hardware tuning. Once you tuned them to the way you like it to sound it will stay like that, almost under any conditions. No metal means less weight. I am sure that the rope tuning is by far the best way to tune a djembe. You have 24 to 40 point evenly pulling the skin around the rim. Not like the metal tuning that have about six and no more than eight points of pressure to pull it into tune. And because it is an artificial skin it does not get out of tune like a natural goat skin. With careful placement of some tape on top of the head you can also eliminate the extended ringing that is associated with artificial head. Some people like the ringing, so it is a matter of preference. I do not, so I have a 3inch of white surgical tape on the opposite side from where I strike the head. This stops the ringing from traveling back and forth.Overall I have 7 djembes and this is the one I use to go to the beach with. It is light weight to carry for long distances and I don't have to worry about it getting destroyed by the elements.

When I bought this Djembe I thought it was Goat skin but it came with a synthetic head that looks allot like skin. Have to say I am empressed as it has very high slap tones and as my other Freestyle drum very big base.The test was a Night time beach drum circle where the weather was overcast. No problem for this drum while others were loosing tone this drums great sound cut through the rest. Probably the best synthetic head djembe I have ever played.